Strong Performances Continue at Texas Invite
December 05, 2003 | Women's Swimming & Diving
A trio of Badger swimmers were guaranteed berths in the 2004 NCAA Championships thanks to their performances during the second day of competition at the Texas Invitational on Friday. Senior Bethany Pendleton and juniors Adam Mania and Carly Piper each achieved NCAA 'A' cut standards to lead UW's effort at the meet.
One day after breaking the school record in the 200-yard individual medley, Mania was up to the record-breaking again. His time of 47.07 in the 100-yard backstroke during the morning's prelims shattered his own previous mark of 47.38 and guaranteed him a berth at the NCAA meet.
'We really had a great night tonight,' Wisconsin head coach Eric Hansen said. 'Adam got us started in the evening session with an incredible effort in the 100 back long-course. We swam incredibly well as a team. '
Pendleton and Piper both earned their second automatic qualifying standard of the meet during the morning's preliminary round. After earning an 'A' cut in the 200-yard individual medley on Thursday, Pendleton achieved the standard in the 400-yard IM on Friday with a time of 4:13.65.
Piper headed a strong UW effort in the 200-yard freestyle by reaching the qualifying mark with a time of 1:47.04. She earned an 'A' cut in the 500-yard free the previous day. Pendleton came extremely close to automatically qualifying in the 200 free during the evening session's time trials, finishing in 1:47.72. In addition to Pendleton, Wisconsin also got 'B' cuts in the event from Anna Trinidad (1:49.65), Shannon VanCuren (1:50.09) and Emily Carpenter (1:50.60).
Amalia Sarnecki bested her own school record in the 100-yard breaststroke during the prelims with a provisional qualifying time of 1:02.44 to top her previous mark of 1:02.55.
The Badger women also got 'B' cut performances from Emily Pisula in the 400 IM (4:17.12), Susan Johnson in the 100-yard backstroke (55.77) and the 200-yard medley relay team of Lindsay Leech, Sarnecki, Johnson and Sarah Hernandez (1:41.43).
In addition to Mania's performance, the Wisconsin men had a number of other strong efforts. Much like the women, the men had a great deal of success in the 200 free as three individuals provisionally qualified for nationals. Eric Wiesner (1:37.49), Matt Marshall (1:38.43) and Chris Anderson (1:39.06) each earned 'B ' cuts in the event.
Kevin Zakrzewski's time of 55.15 in the 100 breast and Tim Liebhold's mark of 3:52.64 in the 400 IM both achieved 'B' standards, as did the 200 medley relay team of Mania, Zakrzewski, Marshall and Wiesner (1:28.50) and the 800-yard freestyle relay squad of Mania, Wiesner, Liebhold and Pat Torpey (6:29.05).
'We've swum better each session and we look to expect more of the same from the final day of competition,' Hansen said.
UW will wrap up its participation at the Texas Invite on Saturday with prelims beginning at 10 a.m. and time trials slated to start at 8:30 p.m.
